Evan and Claire Whitmore
About the Founders
Professional Good News Hunters. Amateur Plant Parents. Dog-Wranglers. Full-Time Believers in Second Chances.
Evan had seen enough of life’s messiness to be suspicious of words like “hope” and “silver lining.” Claire, on the other hand, had an unshakable talent for spotting the bright side — even when it was hiding behind three layers of chaos and a thunderstorm.
Somehow, against all odds (and a few truly bad first dates), they found each other.
And it turns out: when a cynic and a sunshine-enthusiast join forces, interesting things happen.
The Good News Gazette is what happens when two people decide the world doesn’t need more noise — it needs more proof that good things are still out there.
(And yes, occasionally Evan still rolls his eyes when Claire cries at a story about a rescued duck. Balance.)
They dig up the stories that deserve a bigger spotlight: kindness that sneaks up on you, innovation that actually makes things better, and small wins that feel way bigger than they look.
When they’re not chasing good news, Evan and Claire are usually:
- Arguing about whether coffee counts as a food group,
- Negotiating peace treaties between their houseplants,
- Or being proudly outsmarted by their dog, Waffles — a rescue with more personality than sense.
They believe good news isn’t rare — it’s just underreported.
And if you’re reading this, congratulations: you’re officially part of the rebellion.
Evan Whitmore
Co-Founder, The Good News Gazette
Professional Good News Skeptic Turned True Believer
Evan Whitmore didn’t grow up thinking the world was built for dreamers.
Raised in a town where hard work was currency and hope was often treated like a luxury, Evan learned early to keep his expectations low and his guard up. His path wasn’t marked by easy victories or lucky breaks — it was carved out through persistence, a thick skin, and a stubborn refusal to quit even when quitting might have been easier.
In his early years, Evan bounced between jobs that demanded more muscle than optimism: warehouse shifts, freight docks, maintenance crews — anywhere a strong back and a quiet mind were enough. Life was practical, predictable, and frankly, a little colorless.
But even then, a part of him — the part he didn’t talk about — believed there had to be more than just enduring.
That belief stayed tucked away until his late twenties, when a combination of worn-down patience and the unlikely magic of a board game night (he maintains he was tricked into attending) cracked his world open just enough to let some light in. He met Claire — someone with an entirely different blueprint for living — and over time, his view shifted. Not because someone saved him, but because someone finally reminded him that hope isn’t naivety — it’s courage.
Still, Evan’s foundation remains his own: pragmatic, no-nonsense, and deeply wired to seek what’s real over what’s easy.
In 2023, he co-founded The Good News Gazette to tell the kinds of stories he knew the world was hungry for — honest ones about grit, generosity, second chances, and unexpected joy. He doesn’t believe in sugarcoating reality, but he does believe the full story of the world includes far more goodness than we’re usually shown.
At The Good News Gazette, Evan specializes in spotlighting the small-but-undeniable victories — the underdogs who win quietly, the helpers who don’t wait for permission, the moments that remind you humanity still has a fighting chance.
Outside of work, Evan’s passions are refreshingly unpolished:
- Fixing whatever his dog, Waffles, has recently broken,
- Pretending houseplants don’t need watering that often,
- Arguing (good-naturedly) about whether coffee should legally count as a vegetable,
- And occasionally getting roped into board games he insists he doesn’t enjoy — but somehow always wins.
Today, Evan Whitmore is living proof that your beginnings don’t define your endings.
You don’t have to be born an optimist to build a life you’re proud of — you just have to believe, stubbornly, that better is possible.
(And yes, meeting Claire helped. But the rest — the hard, slow, real work — was always his to do.)
Claire Whitmore
Co-Founder, The Good News Gazette
Relentless Optimist. Story Seeker. Amateur Plant Therapist.
Claire Whitmore has always believed that the world is far better than it gets credit for — even when it gives you plenty of reasons to doubt it.
Raised in a family where kitchen tables doubled as debate stages and neighbors felt like extended relatives, Claire learned early that curiosity and connection were two of life’s best survival tools.
While others collected trophies or report cards, Claire collected stories — small ones, weird ones, the kinds most people overlook but that hint at something bigger underneath.
After earning a degree in communications (and realizing “professional storyteller” was apparently not a real job title), she set out into the working world with two goals:
- Find stories that made people feel something real, and
- Never settle for a life that ran on autopilot.
Her early career was a colorful patchwork: a little journalism, a little nonprofit work, a brief but memorable stretch ghostwriting blog posts for a company that sold artisanal garden gnomes. Through it all, she kept chasing the same thing — the spark of goodness that refuses to quit.
Claire didn’t need life to be perfect. She just needed proof that, even in chaos, people were still reaching out, trying, hoping, helping.
And when she couldn’t find enough of those stories in the headlines, she decided it was time to start building a space where they could thrive.
Enter: The Good News Gazette — the project born from countless late-night conversations, scribbled napkin notes, and the stubborn belief that people are more decent, more brave, and more extraordinary than we’re often led to believe.
At the Gazette, Claire leads the charge in uncovering:
- The small wins that ripple outward,
- The quiet kindness that rewrites someone’s day, and
- The sparks of innovation and heart that deserve front-page treatment.
Claire’s voice is the one that says, “Look closer. There’s magic here.”
And she’s endlessly determined to prove it.
When she’s not scouring the world for stories that restore your faith in humanity, Claire can be found:
- Befriending every plant she sees (with varying results),
- Training her dog, Waffles, to almost come when called,
- Defending the superior virtues of waffles over pancakes,
- And making elaborate coffee drinks at home just to avoid being labeled “basic.”
Today, Claire Whitmore stands as a reminder that optimism isn’t about ignoring the hard parts — it’s about stubbornly, joyfully insisting that they aren’t the whole story.
(And yes, it helped that somewhere along the way, she found Evan — someone tough enough to keep up and smart enough to believe alongside her.)
Waffles
Chief Morale Officer, The Good News Gazette
Rescue Mix. Professional Chaos Agent. Full-Time Troublemaker.
Waffles didn’t come from fancy breeding or pedigree papers.
He came from a shelter, sporting a questionable haircut, a mysterious blend of DNA, and the kind of side-eye usually reserved for soap opera villains.
Evan and Claire adopted Waffles on what was supposed to be a “just looking” visit.
Five minutes later, he had stolen Claire’s sandwich, peed on Evan’s shoe, and somehow still convinced them both they couldn’t leave without him.
Since that day, Waffles has been running a one-dog mission to keep life interesting — and no, he’s not accepting feedback at this time.
At The Good News Gazette, Waffles holds the unofficial title of Chief Morale Officer, which mostly means:
- Interrupting Zoom meetings with loud, opinionated yawns,
- Initiating surprise indoor sprints at exactly 3:07 PM,
- And offering unsolicited (and wildly inaccurate) security alerts about suspicious delivery drivers.
His talents include selective listening, extreme snack detection, and advanced couch destruction.
His hobbies are chasing leaves, judging everyone’s life choices, and pretending not to understand basic commands for comedic effect.
Despite the occasional chaos (and a few very creative escapes), Waffles reminds everyone at The Good News Gazette why they do what they do:
- Because second chances matter.
- Because imperfection is where the real magic lives.
- And because sometimes the most beautiful things are also the most stubborn, muddy, and untrainable.
Waffles is not a good boy.
He’s the best kind of bad boy — and honestly, we wouldn’t have it any other way.